Shades of Red and Blue
by Big Sister Kitty
Summary: Ledah x Malice. Even pawns can think.


Finally! A non-AU! (cheers) This was written for those wonderful, wonderful people who kept reviewing my other stories: **Hrover**, **Sydney Grise**, **Feral Phoenix**, **Herr Wozzeck**, **slash89slash**,** Shenrondx**, **Rihaku**, and a few others whom I might have forgotten because I'm so stupid and absent-minded. (Sorry, you guys. -.-;)

Anyhow, I wrote this after seeing several "themed" _Bleach_, _Naruto_, and _Xiaolin Showdown_ fanfics and I just _had_ to try it. XD Apparently, they do a lot of these in LiveJournal. It's pretty cool, actually. It's a great way to analyze our favorite characters more closely.

Each section is composed of roughly a hundred words. This fanfic will focus more on those unseen times when they started questioning the way things are, instead of a blooming romance.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Riviera: The Promised Land_.

_**Shades of Red and Blue**_

**1. Flight**

He had flown before, of course. When he started he wasn't exactly sure, but he remembered the lifting of his spirit as well as his body when he first flew. At that time his wings matched the white of the clouds, but today he flew again, past the threshold of Heaven's Gate, his wings now black as a raven's.

He wasn't sure if he liked his wings tainted like this. He knew their darkness would inspire terror, but he wondered if they still inspired flight. He supposed that it didn't really matter, because he had forgotten what it was like to feel anyway.

**2. Initiation**

When she first took up arms, she learned that life was fragile. She saw this when she froze an enemy, then hewed away his frigid body. Ice was hard to hack away, but she found it almost too easy when all she had to do was keep an enemy still, then cut it down, ice and all.

It exhilarated her to do what she was never able to do before. She had never held such power in her hands prior to Lord Hector initiating her as a Grim Angel.

But thinking will have to wait, since she still has more souls to collect.

**3. Falling**

There must've been a time when he'd first experienced that. He couldn't remember it, though. What is falling to a being capable of flight, anyway?

He really didn't care for the Undines, but it fascinated him to watch how they would dive into the water from their high, rocky perches, laughing. If he had once felt elated from flying, wouldn't falling produce the opposite effect?

He thought that this only made sense, and those Undines who routinely traverse from water to land and back were foolish.

But, if that was true, then why were they so happy?

**4. Heat**

She stood triumphantly amid a scene of frozen corpses and blood. She loved the way ice would magically sprout from the ground to impale her enemies when she summoned them. She loved their hard, jewel-like beauty as they glistened under the sun, encasing bodies like insects in amber. She loved the blood that froze into rubies at the touch of her halberd. She loved it when her victims were sheathed in frigid coffins, never knowing what hit them.

Those made her feel powerful.

She stood there for some time, ignoring the morning sun until she saw water pooling at the base of the grotesque ice sculptures.

**5. Asgard**

It was a strange place to be. Everything always pointed to the battles ahead of them. Though they were quite an elegant and cultured race, they had no time to cultivate these. The only time they had used literature was for deciphering ancient scripts and codes. The battle against the Demons was more important, their masters said simply. Who has time for love, laughter, life? They were created for the purpose of carrying out the gods' will.

The Grim Angels took all that in without question. Their duties simply demanded all of their attention, or so it seemed to the Magi.

**6. Riviera**

To them, that large, floating island was nothing more than a landmass with simpletons as guardians. What were the gods thinking, entrusting all their powers to the weak, hapless Sprites?

They crossed the threshold between Asgard and Riviera at different times. Heaven's Gate reeked of a bygone era of prosperous culture and art. An ancient race was once said to reside there, particularly in the Silver Palace, but there was nothing much to be said of the fragile architecture.

Riviera was livelier, to say the least, but the only pure, untainted things they saw were those white flowers near the entrance to Heaven's Gate.

**7. Duty**

He didn't know if he would ever get his emotions back. He still wasn't sure if he _wanted _them back. He thought he didn't, but that decision was made when he still had emotions to cloud his judgment. Now that they were gone he was glad, or something close to it. Now that his mind was clear, he knew that he had made the right choice.

The Magi had told him the same thing, and that they were proud that he had made the correct decision. Now he could perform his duties more efficiently.

Emotions made one weak, after all.

**8. Despair**

She watched the Arcs scurry about, trying to fight against her. She thought they were funny. It was like watching grasshoppers contend against birds.

She slew them, and one by one their souls left their bodies.

_Oh?_ It looked like she missed one little Arc girl. She seemed terrified, desperate, hopeless, but tried to hide it. Malice felt no compassion. Her heart was cold, and she hunted her down.

When she threw the girl down from the tower in Lacrima, she thought the latter was amusing, trying to hide her fear with a headstrong countenance. That was what her opponents always did when she cornered them.

**9. Fire**

Smoldering bodies weren't pleasant to watch, but what could he do? Fire was his element.

He drove his spear behind him, impaling a stealthy Vampire. A Harpie tried to claw at him, but he left her in a heap of burning feathers.

Fire is known to refine and purify, and that's what he came here to do—other than carry out the Magi's orders, of course. The heat was supposed to purge evil from all that was holy, like removing impurities from metal. The heat was supposed to cut through the sharp, unholy winters of Utgard.

But somehow, he still felt cold.

**10. Night**

Did she really need to hide in the dark? She wondered why Lord Hector had persuaded her to resort to covert operations. It was not like she was doing anything wrong, right? Likely the Demons had no clue about the plans of the Magi. Besides, they had no means to stop the Retribution.

She pressed a finger to her temple and sighed. It had been a long day, and she was tired. She alighted on the ground and turned her head up at the stars.

She wondered how many souls had lost the chance to look at them today.

**11. Ally**

Did the Magi think that he needed his polar opposite on such a simple mission? Was he to teach the boy the inner workings of being a Grim Angel? When Ursula took him away Lord Hector had told him to leave Ein for dead, and he did. When he found Ein at Nelde and reported it to Lord Hector the latter told him to forget Ein and move on. And he did.

The Magi seemed impractical on this particular venture, but at least that made his mission easier.

Although, he couldn't help but wonder if something was missing.

**12. Moment**

They crossed paths at one point, but Malice merely shrugged his presence off and went her way. Ledah was nothing more than a fellow warrior, after all. Their relationship was strictly professional.

They hadn't talked much before they were Grim Angels. There were times when they passed each other in Asgard, but all they did was smile and nod. She found out that he liked to be alone, and that his countenance was icier than her Diviner.

She knew he didn't think much of her. But when he merely nodded in her direction and flew off, she wondered why she felt a stinging in her chest.

**13. Memory**

The sky was a lovely blue, and made him recall a distant memory. He remembered how brightly the sun shone that day, when he walked down the path and saw her fly off. His eyes averted to that single white feather that fell from her wings as she flew. He bent over and picked it up, twirling it in his fingers.

He thought that it shamed the clouds with its whiteness. And he thought that she shamed the sky with her energy and vigor.

All in all, he dismissed it as a silly memory. He still liked to indulge in it, though.

**14. Weakness**

She never felt any twinge of sadness when she massacred town after town. Those happy little Sprites irritated her, more often than not. They were so _weak_. How could they stay so carefree, so _cheerful?_ Nature would not wait for them. Storms, Demons, Magic—they would come at any time. Why weren't they afraid? Without strength, there would be no future for them, they would be washed away like the inhabitants of Tetyth.

She decided that they were foolish to be as they were. Lord Hector had the right idea to actuate the Retribution.

But she wonders what would happen to her when that time came.

**15. Authority**

During a brief interlude before he would attack Yggdrasil, he watched a tree bow to the wind. It was strong, slender, and magnificent. He knew that the wind played gently with its leaves on calmer days, and nearly tore it from its roots when it was angry.

He also knew that the tree always stayed, always waited for another day. It shouldn't be that way, to succumb to sweet talk one day and be oppressed the next. Didn't it notice what was happening to it?

He didn't have time to contemplate these, however. He still had orders to follow.

**16. Sentiments**

The fresh, thick leaves and pristine, sun-stained atmosphere made her sleepy. It must be boring here, to simply fly from tree to large tree, listen to the cool waters gurgle, and watch Riviera in her day-to-day routine.

She had to admit that there was a time when she enjoyed all these. She liked to sit under the shade of a tree and watch the little mortals down below go about their lives. She liked to roam the halls of Asgard, and peek through the clouds at that strange, floating island.

He thought it funny, told her so, and earned a playful nudge to his arm.

**17. Will**

He wasn't at all pleased to find him there, much less be beaten by him. To think that he was already close enough to reach Ursula.

Ein had grown since he last saw him. He hated to say it but he thought that the boy was right, and he realized that maybe, just _maybe_, he _had_ been a little too eager, a little too quick to follow orders. Didn't he ever think about it?

He took one last glance at Ein and his friends as they proceeded onwards, and he thought that, for the first time, emotions just might make him stronger.

**18. Future**

Ledah lost his future when he turned his back on Lord Hector. She was only too glad to dispose of him. Recurring thoughts made her shudder, and it was about time that she got rid of their instigator.

When she flew away after cold-bloodedly driving Skadi through his heart, she couldn't help but turn her head to look behind, and thought that he should have been more careful with his future. It was a shame, since she thought him a fine, level-headed character, but it took only one decision for all that to crumble.

She discarded him for that.

**19. Regret**

"_Ledah!"_ Ein sounded so distant now. He had wanted to do the will of the gods, but ended up becoming a pawn for the Magi instead.

He felt his life slipping away from him, and watched in sorrow as his memories flooded his mind one final time. Life, love, laughter—he missed those, and he missed fighting alongside the ones he now considered his friends.

He missed having his emotions. If only he had told her sooner, while he still had them.

He wished he could have told her how much she meant to him, back when they were still in Asgard.

**20. Irony**

She hated them, for having hope and a future. She didn't mind at all when Lord Hector gave her a chance to destroy one of theirs, so that he could use both their souls.

But in those final moments when she felt herself fade away a thought struck her. What if she hadn't let herself become a sacrifice? What if she hadn't killed him?

She lost herself then.

When she came to, she realized that the summoning must have failed somehow, but she didn't care anymore.

He held out his hand to her, and smiled when she finally took it.


End file.
